Seared Ahi Tuna Mild Bills Style, Conversations with Paige, Being Told What You Did Whilst Drinking....

I've got a full blog posting for this evening!! Let's start off with some very quick, very delicious seared tuna steaks!!

Cadillac Cowgirl Seared Ahi Tuna

2 Ahi Tuna Steaks
1/2 Jar of Mild Bills Habanero Peach Preserves
Salt and Pepper

Puree the Habanero Peach Preserves and brush over the tuna steaks; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover and chill for 30 minutes. Sear in a non stick skillet over high heat 3 minutes per side for medium rare, or 4-5 minutes per side for medium to well. I personally recommend only searing them long enough so that they are still rare on the inside.

The Peach Preserves give the tuna a perfect blend of sweet and spicy - it's sooo good! Pair with Jasmine rice and a salad (or green beans) and you've got a dinner ready in less than 15 minutes. AND it's healthy!!

We went to Marsalas for dinner last night. Paige and I sat on one side of the booth, Gary on the other. Okay, let's set the scene: dark Italian restaurant, Italian music is playing in the background. Paige, with a piece of bread in her hand, leans over the table towards Gary....you have to visualize Marlon Brando and The Godfather music playing in the background. This shit was so funny:

Paige: How did the Champ do Saturday?
Gary: You mean Tom?
Mommy: He got 9th.
Paige: How did my buddy do?
Mommy: You mean Sam?
Paige: Yeah. Sam.
Mommy: He won
Paige: He got first?
Mommy: Yes
Paige: What about the Ticklemonster (that's Babs)
Mommy: She got 7th or 8th. Why?
Paige: That's all she got? She needs to step it up at these cook offs. Maybe I should have been down there telling her how to cook chili instead of playing in the bouncy house.

Yes!!! That really came out of my child's mouth!!! I love it. You can't make this shit up!!

Speaking of chili....God, it's been so long since I just went slap the hell off on CASI or anything associated with it....LOL!!! I guess the only thing I have to gripe about concerns a committee I'm on. All of the members have sent in their input, yet nothing from the directors. What do you do? I don't know if I necessarily agree with letting the membership make these decisions. What I see, and yes I'm appreciative of the opportunity - don't get me wrong, is more rules, more b.s. and more of the same! I don't see anything being decided when the leadership isn't responding and when the decision to act on our suggestions is up to the BOD. Why not just put a policy in place and be done with it? Like I said, I appreciate the opportunity to make suggestions. I just fail to see how many of our suggestions will make a difference. I also don't see how sending the TICC winner to sponsor cook offs and established cook offs will utilize the winner in the most positive way. We need to be sending our winner to places where CASI is struggling!!! And honestly, this should be more of CASI's burden than the Pods. CASI has a better ability to generate income and sponsorship dollars in order to send the winner to various cook offs. I don't know about everyone else's Pod, but I'm guessing none of them are rolling in cash. As usual, this is just my opinion and is not meant to bash anyone :)

I also find myself giggling at some of the rule book information being posted lately. I don't quite understand why nothing has been posted about contacting regional referees before putting on a cook off....or to come referee your cook off. But hey - what do I know?

If you are running a cook off and you tell people who have mistakenly signed up for CASI instead of Novice "that's too bad", and give them a hard time about switching, then you are a putz. Thankfully, there are always people around to set things straight.

Additionally, when it comes to judging, if you cannot have beer on the judging tables, then you provide WATER ONLY. Not soda, not tea, but WATER. Water and beer should be the ONLY beverages allowed on the judging table. Jesus people.

Speaking of Jesus, if you are an atheist, then you don't get to tell me what you want for Christmas. Are you f*cking serious? I don't care if you don't believe in God. That's your problem. But, you aren't going to bitch about God and Religion and Christmas, and then expect to get a gift on Baby Jesus' birthday. That's just ludicrous...and demented...and ignorant.

Enough of my ranting.

OMG - The Green Room reopened. HELL YEAH!!! The Green Room used to be one of the best restaurants in Dallas until unpaid taxes, rent and shitty ownership shut it down. It's on Elm Street in Deep Ellum and they feature something called "Feed Me/Wine Me", which is exactly what it sounds like! They pick the food and pair wine with each course. Sooo.....last week I happened to pick up a copy of D Magazine. I didn't get around to reading for a few days and when I did, I flipped the magazine open to the page about The Green Room. I read it once. I read it twice. And then I screamed at Gary!!!! We had dinner there Saturday night and it was as amazing as I remembered it to be. I had tuna tartare, a field green salad with goat cheese, apples and raspberry vinaigrette, roasted Carolina Trout with garlic couscous and pumpkin cheesecake. Gary had steamed mussels with Serrano ham, a wilted spinach salad with bacon vinaigrette, lamb chops over sweet potato gratin and a root beer creme brulee. The wine pairings for each course were amazing - lots of Spanish and Argentinian Reds and two Conundrum Whites. Soooo delicious!

What do we do afterwards? Well, first we walk down to Elm Street Tattoo so that I can see my ink man extraordinaire, Chris. He and I talked and I told him to expect my call....I'm ready for some more ink. After that, we went to July Alley - a bar that's been down there forever. I have NEVER walked out of that bar anywhere near sober and I didn't disappoint Saturday night. That is the coolest bar...great drinks, killer music and on Saturday night - IRISHMEN. FULL BLOODED FROM ACROSS THE POND I'M GOING TO JUMP ON YOU IRISHMEN!!! And a few from England. OH. MY. GOD. I couldn't believe it! Those accents....the piercings and Mohawks!!!!! Anyways...I don't think I made too big of an ass of myself in front of them. I saved that for Cafe Brazil...where I passed out waiting for Gary. I could have gotten a PI...or been robbed or raped. I remember NOTHING about coming home. Oh well. Every now and then you have to tie one on. My blessing (and curse) is that I don't get hangovers. I have yet to drink so much that I'm actually discouraged from doing it again because I feel so bad. Give me two Midol and a Vitamin Water before I go to bed and I'm fresh as a daisy the next morning. Maybe I shouldn't be bragging about this particular talent........

We took P to Dinosaur World in Glen Rose on Sunday. So much fun!!! I got some really great pictures that I need to post. Afterwards, we went to Babe's Chicken in Burleson and it is in a really cool building! It was like something from Middle Earth.

And yes, I'm still on Jenny Craig and still losing weight and inches. I guess with all this talk about food one might wonder. And I've started Zumba....not too sure about that yet!

Have a fantastic evening. Stay warm.....

Spreading my own special brand of joy and kindness in all that I do!!!

Kelly